Łódź you believe it?

Sam was host today for seven gamers (including himself). After a couple of late cancellations, we were Sam, Martin, Joe, Ian, Katy, Chris and myself.

Some arrived early, allowing Sam’s boys Stanley and Joe a couple of games before bedtime. We began with In A Bind or, as Martin described it, Twister in a chair.

Each player (me, Katy, Stanley, Martin, Ian and Sam) is given a card and has to adopt a pose that satisfies the instructions on that card. As the cards mount up, so the physical contortions get ever more absurd.

Helpful Sam

Sam was out first, and this allowed him to help the rest of us who were now unable to pick up the cards ourselves, thus prolonging the game until Katy complained about it hurting, yet refusing to give up. She was appalled, having come a very undignified first, when it was suggested that this game wasn’t leaderboard. So appalled, indeed, that I relented and wrote the standings down on the back of a bus ticket.

Martin struggles while Ian is more sedate

1. Katy
2. Ian
3. Stanley
4. Martin
5. Andrew
6. Sam

Next up was a quick game of pairs to 21. Perhaps because he had half an eye on the clock and a keen sense of parental duties, Sam scored in all four rounds, winning three of them, for a swift win.

Sam 25
Ian 17
Andrew 12
Martin 12
Katy 10
Stanley 6
Joe 3

So while Sam put the boys to bed, we decided on a quick game to play until he was back and Joe and Chris arrived. We chose Mord Im Arosa, the game of hearing accuracy. Was it possible for Katy and Martin to be quiet long enough to hear the cubes tumbling down the tower?

They almost didn’t need to as the moment the first victim was found, with four of my clues right next to it, I knew my game was up. All I could do was try to clear my name as best I could. I managed to last long enough that Joe turned up and got to watch a decent amount of the game. He seemed intrigued. But it was a hopeless task.

Katy 3
Martin 12
Ian 18
Andrew 25

Katy was distraught when she was told it was difficult to get hold of, since she seemed to have her heart set on a copy of her own. Martin amazed everyone by telling us it this would be his 700th game rated on Board Game Geek (and by an amazing coincidence, this is the 700th post on GNN).

After this, Chris arrived saying the traffic was shocking, and we sat down to some serious gaming. Joe had brought Magnates, the fun game based around the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of the 17th century.

It’s territory control, as you bid for two types of cards to help you score points, gain advantages, and place estates on the map, and finally do battle against encroaching armies with whatever cards you have left. I enjoyed it, finding it similar to Chocolatl, but it didn’t find favour with Sam and towards the end, he decided to go Dirk (“Dirking his responsibilities,” perhaps?) rather than face reading more text on another selection of cards.

Joe 34
Andrew 28
Sam 24
Ian 22

At the other end of the table it was Katy’s day to be introduced to two GNN favourites: Biblios and 7 Wonders. We were disappointed, however, to discover that it was not Extreme Biblios. Despite Martin’s use of the “Eat Shit” rule whenever offering up a One Gold card, they shuffled the auction pack (robbing the game of any skill) and then used money as a tie-breaker! How unoriginal!

Katy still seemed to like it, though.

Katy 9
Chris 7
Martin 4

And then...

Katy 7
Martin 5
Chris 4

Then she was introduced to 7 Wonders. Katy had already played 7 Wonders Duel at Novocon, so she wasn’t completely new to the concepts. It seemed at one point, though, that the game would end in a fight as Katy picked up two minus points in round three while Chris and Martin picked up five each for military. She did not seem happy about it.

The game ended in her favour, though, thanks to beating Martin on a money tie-breaker (see, Martin? Money tie-breaker’s are rubbish.) Katy scored well across all categories and was the only one to build her wonder. Chris went for blue buildings and, interestingly, yellow buildings. And Martin went for science and guilds, leaving his wonder completely unbuilt.

Katy 47 + cash
Martin 47
Chris 41

Then we were all as one once more. We chose Codenames as our night’s finale. First it was Sam, Katy and Joe against Martin, Chris, Ian and me. Sam and Martin were the spymasters. Our team got lucky as Joe and Katy were often quite convinced by their different interpretations of Sam’s clues. The clue “rich” made Joe think of “Boom” and Katy think of “chocolate”.

Our team had a smoother path, although Martin risked ire with “mouse-click”. It helped us win the game, although Katy checked the rules and say that hyphenated words aren’t allowed.

Another game was tried, this time with Joe as spymaster to Katy, Sam and Ian and on the other team Chris as spymaster to Martin and I. We shot into a 5-1 lead, only for them to pull it back to 6-6. It was tense, but slow and Martin found time to play Wir Sind Das Wolk! on his phone during the downtime. But on our last turn, Martin and I were pretty sure of two of the three we had to get and Chris set us up with a simple clue for the other one. We were done, bang, bang, bang.

On the division, Katy’s run of form (eight wins in the last ten games) means she surely has the medal table sown up, and the Points title is probably hers, too. Adam holds onto Points Ratio.

Sloppy Expansion

After a day of packing, loading, driving and general shifting, Ian and I (Sam) were a little worn out. But we wanted something more memorable out of the day than marginally chapped hands, so we invited Andrew to my house for a little gaming, plumping for another go at Eclipse.

I came down from bedtime reading for the boys to found the unexplored universe ready for plunder, and we were away. With two or three recent plays under our belt, our decisions were faster: we knew what we were doing, and all of us set about creating monstrous war machines in a sad reflection of humanity's true nature. I went big on plasma missiles. Andrew built a fleet of wasp-like interceptors. And Ian built the Eclipse equivalent of a massive hammer hitting you over the head rapidly until you expire.

Wasp-like Interceptors

But the first big battle was me against the ancients GCPD or whatever it's called - the central hex, with rewarding planets and points. However Ian - up until this point rolling appalling dice for his own ships - rolled for the aliens and obliterated me in short notice. I retreated, tail between legs. In the following round Ian moved in himself and despite an initial hesitancy, took the hex and set about reinforcing it. Andrew and I circled warily, but in the end Endersby chickened out and left me to surge in, fuelled by a ludicrously vain optimism. He made the right decision:

Andrew (yellow) cleverly decides not to get involved

Andrew 33
Ian 28
Sam 26

Andrew's cautious expansion and Swiss-like stance on the big battle worked well.

We still didn't have it quite down to the alleged 30 minutes per player, but we'd knocked a whole hour off our last playtime (33.33 mins per player!) , and it was barely 9pm. There was talk of Tinner's Trail, but as it currently resides at Adam and Hannah's house we played Istanbul instead. I think the set up and pack away took longer than the game: we all raced to four gems and I nabbed a fifth as Andrew pipped Ian to second on a tie-breaker:

Sam 5 gems
Andrew 4 gems, lots of money
Ian 4 gems, not much money

Then we intended to play Love Letter - but a visit to the cupboard reminded me this is also currently holidaying in Easton, so instead we set up the rarely-seen Mord Im Arosa. For those unaware, the unusual mechanic at play in this game is listening: trying to work out first where the bodies (red cubes) are in the Hotel Arosa, and then attempting to either implicate your fellow players (their investigators (or cubes)) or clear your name (your cubes) by guessing those colours will be on a certain floor. But: get your guess wrong, and you've made a sloppy investigation. You now have to add another of your own cubes to the hotel and the risk further implications...

I don't know how Ian did it, but over halfway through Andrew and I were implicated all over the shop, whilst Mr Hickman never seemed to get his accusations wrong. As a result, his investigators remained back in the station, drinking tea:

Ian's unused investigators massively outnumber my guys

I was accidental king-maker when I accused both of them on a certain floor and Ian - Ian! - wasn't there. Points are bad in this game:

Ian 9
Sam 13
Andrew 14

A lovely thing to revisit - thanks Joe, who bought it for me many moons ago. We must play again!

Andrew here: I couldn't help but notice the sexy lady having a shower on floor five. How very risqué.

Night on the tiles on the cards

Friday night! Whilst other folk were out at pubs, clubs, or maybe a one-off event, the real action was at my (Sam's) place. Andrew came over early, as the boys were looking forward to a game with him. Ascending Empires was mooted, as was Lords of Waterdeep. In the end though we went for Relic Expedition (the Friendly Animals variant). Joe teamed up with me and across the table were Andrew and Stanley.

Off we went on our explorations. Andrew and Stan conversed, schemed and planned. Joe made weird noises with his mouth and wandered around the kitchen scavenging for actual food, but he did at least roll the die. My team collected the first set of 4 matching relics needed for a win, and headed off to the helipad to conclude matters. Thinking I was being generous I said I needed to roll a 4 on the action die to catch the helicopter (and win) but my generosity was moot - I rolled a two (three is needed to use a helicopter in the real rules) and on the next turn they - having since gathered a set of their own - rolled the 4 they needed to win. AAAAARGH! I cried in anguish. Luckily for Joe, he had nipped upstairs for a poo at this point.

Stanley and Andrew: 4 relics, safely home
Joe and Sam: 4 relics, waiting at helipad with a sense of indignation

Andrew began perusing the games cupboard as I put the boys to bed. When I returned Lords of Waterdeep was now set up, and we dove in without further ado. The score track saw a lot of action as we both built buildings (or 'shops' as they tend to get called) that saw a lot of use, with lots of minor scoring quests - plus the odd doozy. I thought I was safely ahead and then Andrew came back at me. In the end it was down to the Lords rewards - Andrew scored 24 points but I'd managed to get every single quest to score me a 4pt bonus, and ran out OverLord of Waterdeep:

Sam 202
Andrew 180

I chose next, and went for the lesser-spotted Mord Im Arosa. Andrew loves this - and I have to admit it was the second-funnest game of the night in the expletive-loading sense. For those not familiar, the Mord in question is a death - two, actually - in the hotel Arosa, where players are first trying to find the bodies and then secondly trying to implicate each other by guessing where their cubes have landed, having been dropped in the top of the cardboard hotel.

Please enter on top floor

I successfully identified Andrew's location several times, but was totally obliterated when he found my cubes (or detectives) hanging about inappropriately close to the crime scene:

Andrew 6 pieces of evidence against (wins)
Sam 13 pieces of evidence against (banged up)

Heck Meck/Pickonimo was up next. This was completely unpredictable. Andrew surged off into the lead and I was fighting for scraps. But with both of us having claimed all the low tiles on the table, suddenly we were returning tiles of our own as our attempts to claim the multiple-worm tiles faltered.

Itsa Knizia

I was hoping there'd be a pattern where Andrew would return his tile and I'd subsequently pick it up. It didn't work out like that, but - thanks entirely to Lady Fate - I did grab the win, just...

Sam 10 worms
Andrew 9 worms

Finally we bashed out a quick game of 7 Wonders. I didn't get involved in military at all and my plan to have Dirk out-army Andrew never materialised. Dirk did pretty well himself, but it was Andrew who walked away with a convincing win:

Andrew 57
Sam 50
Dirk 45

It was still only ten past ten, but we'd been playing for three hours and Andrew called it a night.

I didn't realise I was this drunk

Sloppy Civilisation

With no GNN session this week due to Valentine's Day, Andrew and I took advantage of Sally working through the (early) evening to squeeze in a quick two-hander. I realise that doesn't sound how I meant it, but I'm not going to change it now. We're grown-ups. 

I made my way to Andrew's with a couple of old, but perhaps underplayed, games in the bag - Mord Im Arosa and Portobello Market. We started with the former. Andrew lists this game as one of his favourites, and though I have a soft spot for it's unique silliness I do believe his preferences are framed by the ample Sean Connery/soft spoken Swede impressions it affords, as we tried various implementations of the phrase 'Sloppy Investigation'. As it turned out, I was by far the sloppier, and Andrew beat me convincingly:

Andrew 19
Sam 13

Don't go to the Mord this summer.

Time for a change. We'd only played Portobello Market 2 or 3 times and I think the general GNN impression was of the arched eyebrow variety - no open derision, but not a lot of enthusiasm either. It does play more tactically with two, I think; you can plan your moves with only one other person to ruin them for you, and it also plays quicker with two as there's less thinking time. But it's still one of those games that allies a simple rule set with deceptive strategic depth, and having started well only to fall back behind Andrew, I managed to jump past him with a sneaky trigger-the-game-end move:

Sam 161
Andrew 147

Andrew suspects those DVDs may not be kosher

One that merits further plays, I feel, though accusations of abstractery must be admitted to.

There was still time before I had to dash back so we broke out another of Andrew's faves (and my nemeses, along with Trans America): Roll Through the Ages: the game of dice-based stuff, where you balance the virtues of extra cities with the fact the buggers need feeding. I did pretty well, for me, but my beautifully advanced civilisation - with monuments and everything - was undone by serial disasters as I neglected to provide any food. How can the people starve? They're only made of wood!

Andrew 18
Sam 9

No knowledge will be handed out unless you have an amphora

With our gaming fix sated, and Andrew winning 2-1 on the night, I headed off into the ether...

Nine hours of games

While Sam's family were away, he took the opportunity to host a day-long games night. Sadly, Joe was unable to make it but Adam and myself arrived at Sam's at three, eager to take advantage of the good weather by sitting indoors all day. Anja, Steve and Hannah were all expected in the early evening.

The first game brought to the table was Toledo, in which you have to forge swords and collect art in an attempt at getting prestige points. In this game, the players create the board and move along it at the same time. The game begins with a featureless street leading up to the palace on the hill. Placing shops along the street gives the characters a place to stop, and the playing cards in your hand allows you to move multiple times each go, but only if the value on each card is the same.

It's a bit like Ludo according to Wallace, since landing on another character sets off a duel, and the losing piece goes back to the cathedral. The game ends when one player has three men in the palace. It was okay, but I found I didn't get the cards I needed to progress how I would've liked. But isn't that just like life? Adam and Sam had no such problems.

Adam 22
Sam 19
Andrew 12

Then we went back to an old familiar, Alhambra. We considered playing with one of the extensions, but no one seemed terribly keen when we looked at them, so we stuck to the original, pure and simple. It's definitely not a very sociable game, and there were a lot of tense silences as we all weighed up our options. In the end it was very close with me just squeezing past Adam by the slenderest of margins.

Andrew 126
Adam 125
Sam 121

Then we went outside! First we played headers and volleys. Sam's passing skills were a little wayward, and he explained that he was used to passing into space for people to run on to the ball. He then demonstrated this by passing into the ample space of next door's garden.

This was followed by cricket, which wasn't leaderboard since we were making up the scoring system as we went along, but Adam kept mentioning it throughout the evening when he was asked how many games he'd won.

Adam 19 not out
Sam 10 out (B.O.F. – ball over fence)
Andrew 4 not out

Back inside, we sat down for another new game, Biblios. This is a card game, where you collect books of a certain type (including mucky books – or Forbidden Tomes as they're called in the rules) which then score you points at the end of the game. It's a case of choosing a category or two and then trying to push up the scores for them by using special "church cards" and hoping no one is also collecting the same things. It's okay as a game. I didn't really get what was going on,though. Adam did.

Adam 9
Sam 5
Andrew 2

Then reinforcements arrived, in the shape of Anja, Hannah and Steve! Sam took the opportunity to start making some pizzas, while the five of us played Trans America. It was apparently Steve and Anja's first time playing the vexation rule but they seemed to take to it very quickly.

Adam 4
Steve 6
Hannah 7
Anja 9
Andrew 15

And so, having eaten well, we split into two groups of three. We insisted that Steve finally play Stone Age, and he joined Sam and Adam for foraging larks. Hannah, Anja and myself chose San Marco. I can't remember why. Hannah and I explained the rules to Anja, and then watched in helpless bemusement as Anja took us to the cleaners. In the final round I think she scored in every region.

Anja 78
Hannah 57
Andrew 34

Meanwhile, Steve seemed to be getting on fine with Stone Age. He was a long way up the score track and was even calling the starting player marker "Brian Blessed". It was if he'd been playing it all his life. And there was no last minute sprint up the score track from Sam or Adam, so it ended:

Steve 214
Adam 169
Sam 161

Those two games ended at similar times, so there was a brief period of discussion before we split into groups of four and two. Anja wanted something a bit more thinky, so wanted to play Ponte del Diavolo, while I wanted something silly and decidedly not thinky, so I suggested Mord im Arosa.

So Steve, Adam, Hannah and myself went looking for (and hiding) clues to the murder of two small red cubes. It's a game that requires listening skills and, most of all, a good memory. Something that Steve insisted he didn't have. But he still came second. Sort of.

Adam 11
Hannah 11
Andrew 21
Steve 21

Meanwhile, Anja's lack of experience with the scoring system on Ponte del Diavolo was surely an aspect in her defeat.

Sam 21
Anja 10

By now it was half past ten. Usually the time of the evening when we consider a quick game to finish, or maybe even calling it a night. But not tonight!Tonight is a special night where push towards midnight with a Martin Wallace double bill! Toledo returned to the table, and Tinners' Trail, too, was chosen.

I was up against Hannah and Adam on the Tinners' Trail half of the table. They'd recently bought this game as a joint birthday present to themselves, so they clearly had an affinity to the game. Certainly, Adam cleverly played it so that he ended the first and second rounds in a position to buy a cheap mine. I never really got going, with my mines all over Cornwall. And Hannah was hurt after putting money into buying a new mine, only to discover an underground lake.

But no one could have foreseen the crash in the market in the last round. For me, it meant that mining copper would just break even. I may as well sell pasties

Adam 131
Hannah 104
Andrew 92

Grr. Adam again!

Over in Toledo, Steve and Anja showed Sam that experience is no substitute for beginner's luck.

Steve 23
Anja 19
Sam 17


All of which makes the Form table look very different. Unfortunately, I played so many games that my early win of the day has already been replaced by other, more recent more regrettable results. Adam, meanwhile, equals the best ever score.

						Points
Adam	1	1	2	1	1	6
Hannah	2	1	2	3	2	10
Steve	1	2	1	2	5	11
Sam	3	1	3	2	3	11
Anja	2	2	1	4	5	14
Andrew	3	2	3	5	3	16
Joe	4	4	3	3	4	18

Trans-Datum

Friday night Sally and I had Mark and Katie over, which meant I was allowed to raid the games cupboard. Sally has an interesting take on games, in that if you don't talk all the way through them you're not playing properly. Usually this talk will at some point hit upon the appalled realisation that the game is lasting 'ages'. But we chose a fairly speedy game so I was spared opprobrium.

The actual choosing of the game was a game in itself, inspired by my wonderful present from Katie, the delightful 70's piece Madame Planchette's Horoscope game, modelled coquettishly here by Sally:

Both of these women got paid for this

In what was either an inspired bit of improvised gaming or a deviously pre-planned scheme to play Trans-America, Mark laid out four crisps on the table and secretly assigned them a game: Alhambra, Ticket to Ride, Carcassone and the aforementioned railway game.

Where's Tinner's Trail?

Katie then chose a crisp (the big one) which turned out to be her favourite, Trans-America. There was talk of playing Madame Planchette herself, but nobody was in the mood for learning rules, even if the first line of them is the delightful "Before play begins, everyone makes a secret wish."

So off we went, railroading our way across America, only to tear up all our good work in disgust and start again whenever someone made their connections. The classic sensation of playing Trans-America is when you look at your cards and think "how in the wide world of sports am I going to link these up?" - and certainly that was pretty much how I felt throughout the game.

Hands across America

Staring forlornly at the board appears to make no difference, however, so I simply cursed the urban development of San Diego, Houston, Duluth etc and watched as Mark and Katie gallivanted their way to convincing 1-2 finish:

Mark  3
Katie  6
Sam   8
Sally 14

Sally's suggestion that we get Andrew to write up the night felt just a bit too presumptuous though, so here I am.

On Saturday we played games too; this time with Becky and Dan, who had come from Chesham for the night. I discovered that Becky loves games! Perhaps that was the moment when they became respectable in Sally's eyes. We'll see.

I didn't take any photos that night, so here are Stanley and Joe.

Anyway, Becky, Dan and I managed a 13-all draw in Mord Im Arosa as Sally was collared for the murders with 15 points. Then Becky won Tsuro, with Dan second and Sally third as I crashed out first, giving me a weekend wide 3-1-4 spread. This is all non-leaderboard though, right?

Last one to (destroy) Magdeburg is a rotten egg

When I write this blog, sometimes it's easier than others. But perhaps the hardest time is not when you've come last, but when you've had a chance at first, but threw it away thanks to your own greed. But I'll speak more of this sorrowful tale later.

We began the evening with the three of us – myself, Joe, and Sam – playing Mord im Arosa. We also played Adam's goes for him, as we were expecting him at any second. As it happened, we played quite well on his behalf so when he did arrive, he was in a comfortable first place. Of course, this unconventional way of playing meant the game wasn't leaderboard, but for the record: I was left in last, especially when Sam found three of my guilty cubes in one go, pushing me over the ten-cube limit. Joe and Adam ended as joint winners, with Sam in second.

There was a brief moment afterwards when we were waiting for Steve and Anja when we discussed squeezing in a quick game or if we should actually talk to each other. In the end, we compromised and talked about games until they arrived.

Once they were here, we played new favourite Incan Gold. As a game that works well (perhaps best) with many players, it's quickly gained a special place in our hearts. It was a tense affair, especially for Steve who would confidently place his card down and then, seconds later, pick it back up and reconsider. In the end Joe won it by a whisker, and by sheer fluke as he realised he put down the wrong card. But it was too late to take it back, so he regretfully left the temple and took what treasure he had. The next card finished the game completely, so he got out just in time.

Joe 32
Andrew 31
Adam 30
Anja 28
Steve 13
Sam 9

We then split into two groups of three. Steve, Anja and Sam played Wallenstein, a game whose pronunciation has gone from genteel middle England “Wallensteen” to full blooded Gothic “Vollenschtine” since we last played it. I shall leave it for them to clear up the story of what Gustav Adolph did next. The results ended...

Steve 28
Anja 25
Sam 25

Joe, Adam and I went for the bright lights and white lines of Sunset Strip as we chose Lords of Vegas. And I did feel a bit like I was living the high life, with one half of the table hunched over a map of Germany with cardboard squares and wooden blocks, while we had dice and poker chips and bad American accents. If only board games could be played in a convertible Chevy with the top down while speeding down Route 66, the image would be complete.

Adam scared us all with some remarkable luck regarding which plots of land he could build on and before long, we were looking at his brand new seven-square brown casino. (I should stress now that “brown casino” is not a euphemism for his bottom.) Joe and I started panicking. Joe used the last of the brown squares to stop Adam from expanding, and I went for silver.

Before long, I was suddenly in pole position. Adam's brown casino had completely seized up! And his dice skills had deserted him. Meanwhile, I was getting a steady income from my unused land and some lucky pay-outs from my casinos. But like some village idiot in a folk tale who inherits lots of money and gets greedy and ruins everything, I decided to go gambling.

There was a casino with five dice, only one of which belonged to Adam, the other four split evenly between me and Joe. I decided to re-organise – roll all of the five dice to make a new boss – thinking that if I didn't win then third-placed Joe would. As it turned out Adam defied the odds and won. To make things worse, the next card meant that that casino paid out, giving him Adam points which later were to prove instrumental.

Joe's tale, meanwhile, was a typical rags to riches story. He was the original boss of Adam's casino, but soon found himself reorganised out of his position. This happened to him a lot and towards the end, he had an unmatched collection of dice showing ones, which barely helped him when the casinos paid out.

When the final scores were added up, Adam was only one section ahead of me, and I think I would've beaten him on money, so that reorganising I'd done by accident gave him the game. I cursed my foolishness. Joe came in third, but with only a couple more goes, he would've been in a much stronger position. Possibly still third, though.

Adam 49
Andrew 44
Joe 32


The form table shows a new face on top of the pile. Yes, finally, your faithful reporter gets his day in the sun. Ooh, I feel a bit dizzy so far up.

						Points
Andrew	2	2	1	1	3	9
Steve	1	5	2	3	1	12
Joe	3	1	1	4	5	14
Hannah	1	1	3	5	5	15
Adam	1	3	2	5	5	16
Sam	2	6	3	3	2	16
Anja	2	4	4	2	5	17
Jonny	2	2	5	5	5	19

Murder Cubed

My dad, Mo, and sister Heather are currently over from the U.S. and last night I managed to engineer Mo away from the Scrabble board and convince Heather and Sally to play another game. I did think about Stone Age, or Tinner's Trail, or Alhambra, but in the end I bottled it and went for Mord Im Arosa, the game that trivializes both death and morality.

For the uninitiated this is a game of listening - putting my half-deaf dad at a disadvantage - for clues (cubes) as they tumble down through the cardboard floors of the Arosa Hotel. Then it's a simple matter of finding the murder victims, and trying to implicate your fellow players whilst keeping your own name in the clear.

In the first game Mo found himself serially on the wrong floors, like a killer scrabbling unsuccessfully for the exit door whilst smothered in butter. While I made abortive attempts to Clear My Name (and remove my clues from the implicatory Investigation Sheet) Sally and Heather kept their names relatively unsullied:

1 Sally

2 Heather

3 Sam

4 Mo

The game only took 15 minutes so everyone was amenable to another go at it before we all collapsed in a wine-induced stupor. This time - though I don't remember the exact scores - it was more even between 2nd/3rd/4th, but I somehow managed to finish with only one clue on the Investigation Sheet - all my clues throwing in their lot together on the uninvestigated first floor.

1 Sam

2 Heather

3 Mo

4 Sally

Nice to squeeze in a couple of games on a non-GNN week (there is poker on Friday, if anyone's tempted) but a shame that no-one took up the mantle of saying "shloppy investigation" in a faux-Swedish accent from me.

I thought that was pretty much the game's main attraction, but apparently not.

The Tower of Murder

Monday rolled around, I decided to skip life drawing this week, and so Sam and I sent out a (fairly optimistic) call for attendees at an unofficial Games Night. No one else could make it, so it was just the two of us this evening.

First, as a little warm-up appetiser introduction, we chose Mord im Arosa, the detective game with sounds for clues. As a two-player game, it plays pretty quickly, so we able to fit three in before the main course feature main event of the night. On the first go, Sam was a comfortable winner, thanks to finding four of my clues on the ground floor. Second time around I ran out a clear winner thanks to Sam's obsession with floor six which, no matter how often he checked, was always clear of any cubes at all.

For the third and deciding game, it was a Titanic battle with accusations flying back and forth, and the occasional bit of subtly removing our own clues. In the end, we were both poised on equal points and nine cubes each when Sam found some clues of mine on a floor entirely unrelated to the crime. It seems that that's enough to send you down in this kangaroo court, so Sam ended as the winner.

We had discussed the Gates of Loyang as a potential option for the main game, but in the end, decided on the warm comfy presence of Stone Age. We'd played only recently, and Sam had been a narrow winner. This time he tried to bluff me by saying he'd go for hut multipliers. Well, that's my territory and so, like a dog in the yard straining on an old bit of rope barking at people who were only walking past anyway, I was quick to pay over the odds for an early hut x3 multiplier. Ha!

The game was notable for a complete lack of civilisation cards in the first part of the game, followed by a surplus of them in the second part. Sam built up an army of meeples and had the farms to feed them, while I had my huts and my axes. In the end, it was down to the civilisation cards, and I had eight compared to Sam's seven (the last one was the only unused card at the end of the game) which just nudged me in front.

Andrew 280
Sam 272

A pleasant evening and a useful warm up to tomorrow's meeting, when Adam returns to the fray.

Life in the Hotel Arosa

You know if you can't get your wives to play games with open invitations, one must use subterfuge. To that end, Joe and I arranged a dinner on Saturday evening at my house and underwent lengthy nods to polite society in the form of conversation, food (cooked by Sally - I'm shameless), glasses of wine, et cetera. But of course at some stage we had to get a game on the table, and our pre-arranged plan* meant that Joe was the one to propose it.

*Our pre-arranged plan was actually Joe suggesting it and me being too scared to, suspecting Charlotte secretly loathes me for introducing Joe to Settlers of Catan about 5 years ago. You know the rest.

I would have tried to work up to such a daring proposal, but Joe, his self-respect long-since burnt to hell in a household of game-skeptics, just came out with it. But as it transpired both Charlotte and Sally had been primed, and were resigned to indulging their goonish husbands... And so we played Mord im Arosa, the game where players listen out for the sound of tumbling wooden cubes in order to solve a mystery, and then accuse each other of the murders.

I'm not great at this game, as my method seems to be instantly forgetting anything I've just heard and guessing wrong, meaning more of my cubes go in the tower, and subsequently being more open to accusation. Sally and Joe, having played before, were alive to this in-built ratio, but Charlotte blew us all out of the water by constantly predicting where her own cubes where and eliminating all but the most minimal suspicion of her on the investigation sheet. Sally came in second, Joe third, and I was last, implicated as the most inept murderer ever, leaving my bloody fingerprints on the banisters as I made my way down the fire escape.

*

On Sunday we had Mark and Katie over for tea, and so the games commenced fairly early. I'd been hoping to show them The Downfall of Pompeii, but Katie had a hankering for Trans America. As that's fairly quick, we managed to squeeze in two other games as well.

We started with No Thanks, which was new to everyone but me. The rules are simple, though, and everyone was quickly up to speed. Especially Mark, who ran out a clear winner. Tactics now slightly clearer, we had another game, which I can't remember who won (I think it was Mark again) but Katie played a very nice final round, letting the card she wanted collect about 20 coins before picking it up as everyone cursed her chutzpah. She and Mark both liked this, whereas Sally was less enamoured of it, being innately suspicious of numbers.

Then we played Trans America as agreed, and despite Katie's first-round error of announcing her connections when she still hadn't reached Kansas City, it was another strong showing from the Chiseller. We ended after two rounds with Mark beating Katie by one space on the score track, Sally third and me way out in last place.

My gaming chops feeling particularly droopy, I wasn't confident of winning Mord im Arosa but was looking forward to playing, guessing that Katie and Mark would like it. And they did, though with some reservations. There's something intangibly confusing about the rules that disconcerts everyone on first play, and that was the case here, but after an extended search for the second corpse (who still seemed curiously mobile) we slowly got to grips with it, and were soon accusing each other like old hands.

I finally won a game too, despite leaving several clues next to the victims. We had thrown so many cubes in searching for that second victim that we had implicated ourselves on almost every floor - though of course, we still managed to do the odd sloppy investigation too. Mark was second, Sally third, and Katie was the murderer.

So a weekend of gaming came to an end and I hadn't, as far as I knew, alienated anybody. Katie and Mark were even talking about buying Trans America/Europa for themselves - and Katie mentioned again her temptation to come to Stabcon in January. We must work fast, friends, as going to StabCon too soon might be a tactical error. She doesn't joke about meeples yet or know who Dirk Henn is. The best tactic is to let the geek grow from within, so confronting a hundred hairy fat men quoting Blackadder will seem an inconsequential side-show to the pleasure that is gaming...

Troyes, Troyes again

This evening we had six gamers around the kitchen table. Despite our recent extra-curricular games, Sam and I were still excited at the prospect of another games night. Joe, Adam, Steve and Anja made up the rest of the gang. Jonny was going to be here, but couldn't make it at the last moment.

With six of us, we played Mord Im Arosa. This game of gravity-based sleuthing was new to many of us, but it was swiftly explained and before long we were hunting up and down the seven-floor hotel looking for clues or trying to cover our tracks. With more than two-players, it's quite a different game and does need a little more concentration that before. However, late in the game a detached flap on one of the floors caused a blockage which made sleuthing easier than you'd otherwise expect, which pushed someone over the "ten suspicious cubes" limit and ended the game.

1. Anja 10
2= Sam 11
2= Andrew 11
3. Adam 14
4. Steve 15
5. Joe 16

After this, we split into a group of four and a group of two. Joe and I played Troyes (and I found out that the only reason he gave it to me for my birthday was so he'd have someone to play it with) while the others settled down with Portobello Market. I'll leave it to them to fill in the details of their two games, but the scores were

Adam 105
Steve 95
Anja 82
Sam 65

And in the second game...

Sam 106
Steve 84
Adam 82
Anja 79

Meanwhile, Joe and I reintroduced ourselves to Troyes. I discovered a couple of rules I hadn't got right first time round, but I think my recent practise helped me. Joe started by pushing me out of my positions on the buildings, so I got fewer dice, but with only four rounds it didn't seem to make too much difference. And even if I do say so myself, I made some canny decisions in the final round. When the victory points were counted up, I found that I'd won by the slimmest of margins.

Andrew 33
Joe 32

Since it was still early(ish) and we'd all finished our games at the same time, we reconvened for another six-player game. This time, 6nimmt was brought out, and despite its confusing rules (at least until you play it) and Sam's instance it should be called 5nimmt, since you take five cards and leave the sixth, it was a fun game.

Despite his previous good form, Adam did badly from the start but quickly recovered. My form dropped dramatically after the first round, while Sam managed to dodge most of the damage being given out to the other players. By the end, we admitted that no one really had a strategy and Adam said that he did worst when he tried to plan ahead.

Sam 20
Steve 31
Adam 45
Anja 47
Joe 49
Andrew 66

So five games and four winners. And hats off to "Second Place" Steve for his consistency, which sees him up to third with Anja hot on his heels. Despite picking up a sixth place, I stay on the same number of points, while Joe falls due to his habit of coming in fifth.

						Points
Sam	1	1	4	2	1	9
Adam	3	3	1	3	1	11
Steve	2	2	2	4	4	14
Anja	4	4	3	1	2	14
Andrew	6	1	2	3	3	15
Jonny	1	3	5	3	3	16*
Quentin	1	3	5	5	5	19
Joe	5	2	5	2	4	19
Hannah	2	3	5	5	5	20

* the decay rule –people with five results registered, after a while, will find their score go down one point per week if they don't attend for three weeks. It may sound harsh, but it stops the regulars getting resentful. If they attend another evening, all decay points are removed.

Meanwhile, I've been keeping the old style leaderboard up to date. To be honest, it's suffering from the same trouble as last season. Sam is leading with 101 points, Joe is second with 86, Adam has 78 and then I'm fourth with 65.5. After that it's the usual large gap to fifth (Steve, 38.5).

However, the Olympic style leaderboard is looking much more exciting, with a real three-way battle for supremacy. Joe may have fallen to eighth in the form table, but he's still in the running here. And form is transient. Medals last forever. If we gave out medals, that is.

The Olympic leaderboard...

	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Sam	8	10	1
Joe	7	4	6
Adam	6	3	6
Steve	2	4	0
Andrew	1	4	7
Anja	1	2	1
Jonny	1	0	5
Quentin	1	0	1
Hannah	0	1	1

Four games in a day, and not a leaderboard in sight

I spent a tranquil afternoon as I played through a game of Troyes by myself, just to get an idea of how it works, with Final Score on the TV to keep me company. And, despite Garth Crooks' increasingly theatrical sighs of dismay at Newcastle vs. Wolves or whatever, I enjoyed my first walkthrough of this dice-based game (but in a good way) of disaster-management.

Soon after that I got a text from Sam about a impromptu games evening, and so before long I was sitting at his kitchen table, complete with red and white polka dotted tablecloth (not a patch on Joe's green felt, frankly) learning another new game.

We began with Portobello Market. In this, one has to build up market stalls along streets and then score them according to the customers (normal, aristocrats or the baron) with an option to score districts, too, which scores big but can reduce the number of actions you can do in future turns. In the first game, we were just warming up, unsure of any tactic.

Sam 195
Andrew 180

On the second go, we were a little more canny. We paid more attention to the position of the policeman (which lets you place market stalls) but it was still too early to fully compute the role of the baron, who appears automatically when the last customer is placed on the board. Is it worth leaving a space on the board where you are strongest, hoping that he'll drop into your lap on the last go? Or should you play safe, use an aristocrat and get the points early? Such is life for the Portobello market-stall holder circa 1901.

Sam 209
Andrew 200

After this, we decided to squeeze in one last game. Mord im Arosa. In this game, players have to solve a murder using only their sense of hearing. Cubes are dropped into a cardboard tower and by listening, each player has to guess where the murder took place. A wrong guess means the player has to add their own cubes to the murder scene, which increases the odds of them being unveiled as the murderer.

It's a silly game and a lot of fun. I turned out that I have quite the aptitude for this game, as my guesses regarding the location of Sam's suspicious cubes was unerringly accurate. The game ended with a large enough margin of victory for the heinous crime to be solved.

"Solid Alibi" Andrew 5
"Blood on his hands" Sam 14

Both games were a lot of fun, although would probably be more so with more players. Especially Portobello Market which has potential for quite a bit of Analysis Paralysis if four are playing, I think.